Xu L, Chen J, Guo H, et al. - Whether peri-treatment peripheral blood cells (PBC) have predictive potential for disease progression hazard in esophageal cancer post-chemoradiotherapy, was examined herein. In a phase II trial, 87 patients suffering from primary esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were subjected to definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Distinct distribution patterns of peri-treatment PBC were evident in cases with disease progression vs that in cases without disease progression. Via summation, the most predictive PBC parameters were combined and named as a PBC score (PBCS), which further increased their predictive power. There were significantly different 3-year cumulative hazards of locoregional progression among patients who were classified based on their PBCS (high vs medium v. low) (58% vs 29% vs 7%). Overall, it was inferred that long-term locoregional progression hazard post-treatment could be predicted via systematic analysis of PBC distribution in patients receiving definitive chemoradiotherapy for esophageal cancer.